The stupid, it burns:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
The campaign of former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown (R) is attacking New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen for threatening to raise gas taxes. But records and news clips show that Brown is the only one of the two who could be said to have voted for something like that.
Brown, who lost his 2012 re-election bid to Elizabeth Warren, is trying to move to New Hampshire by unseating Shaheen in this year's election.
In recent days, his campaign and the New Hampshire Republican Party have been trying to take advantage of soaring gas prices by warning that Shaheen would raise gas taxes.
For instance, Brown Campaign Manager Colin Reed tweeted:
The state GOP has posted tweets calling Shaheen a liar, and accusing her of trying to hide her alleged support for a gasoline tax:
The claim is supported by a Concord Monitor news story that paraphrases Shaheen as saying a gas tax could be part of a solution to repair crumbling highways and bridges, but the article doesn't quote her directly. A transcript of the paper's interview with Shaheen has been unavailable.
There are two problems with Brown hitting Shaheen on gas taxes. One is that Brown himself said during his campaign against Warren that he may be open to raising gas taxes, although he more often said he opposed increasing the tax. If Shaheen did say a gas tax could be part of the solution, it puts her in the same place as Brown, since she has generally opposed any hikes.
The second problem is that Brown, while a member of the Massachusetts state legislature, supported a bill that critics at the time called a "back-door" hike of the state gas tax. In 2003, then-Gov. Mitt Romney decided to raise by a factor of five the half-cent per gallon gasoline tax that fuel suppliers paid into a fund for cleaning up underground storage tanks. Romney also decided to stop dedicating that money to cleanups, and Brown voted in favor of that budget. The practice was little noted at the time, but became a mini-scandal in 2010, when people realized the cleanup money had been diverted into the general fund, just like the rest of the gasoline tax.
The issue also surfaced in the 2012 presidential campaign. Romney argued that the hike was not a tax increase. Although Brown's campaign manager said the claim that Brown backed such a hike was not correct, he did not elaborate. - Huffington Post, 7/7/14
This is the great Scott Brown comeback folks. Only it's not so great:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) outraised former Republican senator Scott Brown (Mass.) between April and June by about $800,000.
Shaheen's campaign announced Monday that it raised more than $2.8 million during the second quarter of the year. Brown's campaign said last week that he raised more than $2 million.
Brown is the frontrunner to win the Republican nomination against Shaheen. A recent poll showed him trailing her by 10 points.
Shaheen's campaign ended June with more than $5.1 million in the bank. Brown has not released his cash on hand total. - Washington Post, 7/7/14
And Brown is getting hit by his opponents in his primary:
http://www.concordmonitor.com/...
A pro-Jim Rubens political action committee, called the New Hampshire PAC to Save America, is kicking off a new strategy aimed at bringing down Scott Brown.
The message centers around Brown’s record of voting with President Obama more than 60 percent of the time for each year he represented Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate, including in 2012 when he voted with Obama 78 percent of the time.
“I think a question for Scott Brown is what is the acceptable percentage for him to vote with President Obama?” consultant Mike Dennehy said in a press call this morning to announce the new strategy. “Is it 90, is it 80, is it 78 (percent) like he did? Because I think maybe a question Republican voters need to ask is do Republicans want a nominee representing them, do they want a U.S. Senator who votes more with President Obama than with the Republican Party?”
Brown, Rubens and former U.S. senator Bob Smith will square off in the Sept. 9 Republican primary.
The PAC kicked off the new strategy by launching a website called http://www.realscottbrownrecord.com that highlights areas where Dennehy says Brown has strayed from the Republican Party platform. The website says Brown has broken from the party platform of spending, taxation and gun control, among other things. It also accuses him of flip flopping and failing to explain changes in his positions. - Concord Monitor, 7/8/14
And Brown just can't shake his Massachusetts roots:
http://www.nytimes.com/...
It was a bit of an odd tableau: a former Massachusetts governor endorsing a former Massachusetts senator to represent the people of New Hampshire in the United States Senate.
But as Scott Brown wages a campaign to become one of only a few individuals to win election to the Senate from more than one state, he turned on Wednesday for help to the man whose support has aided him at several important junctures in his political career: Mitt Romney.
On a day so hot that Mr. Romney began talking about global warming, Mr. Brown, who just declared New Hampshire his official residence seven months ago, told the former governor: “It’s good to have you back in New Hampshire. You have a lot of friends in our state, and I’m proud to be one of them.”
Mr. Romney, in endorsing his fellow Republican’s candidacy, bemoaned the state of the economy and America’s place in the world during the Obama presidency, and praised Mr. Brown as “someone who I know well, a terrific American, an independent voice, an independent thinker.” - New York Times, 7/3/14
Things are looking good for us here but we can't take anything for granted. Romney, the Kochs and Karl Rove will do anything to get Brown back in the Senate so we have to be ready. Click here to donate and get involved with Shaheen's campaign:
http://jeanneshaheen.org/